The Angels' Josh Hamilton strikes out swinging against the Oakland A's with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first earlier this month. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

NOT SO CLUTCH

The Angels are hitting just .155 as a team with runners in scoring position this season. Here's how several of their top hitters have fared:

PLAYER

AB

H

RBI

AVG.

Albert Pujols

10

3

7

.300

Mike Trout

13

3

4

.231

Howie Kendrick

11

2

4

.182

Mark Trumbo

12

2

4

.167

Alberto Callaspo

6

1

1

.167

Josh Hamilton

14

2

5

.143

Peter Bourjos

12

0

1

.000

Erick Aybar

6

0

1

.000

TEAM TOTALS

103

16

34

.155

SOURCE: baseball-reference.com

ANGELS MAILBAG

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Angels beat writer Jeff Fletcher will be answering reader questions about the Angels (or baseball in general) every Saturday throughout the season in the Register and on ocregister.com.

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It just might be that the answer to one of the Angels' most vexing problems early in the season is simply not to think about it.

The Angels, who were expected to be one of the highest-scoring teams in baseball, are actually sitting near the bottom of the league in runs. Mostly, it's been an issue of timing. The Angels are fourth in the league in batting average, but 12th in runs per game, because of an almost unfathomable .155 average with runners in scoring position.

To hitting coach Jim Eppard, the solution is actually to get his players not to worry about being better with runners in scoring position.

"As soon as you look at it as a different type of scenario, you put pressure on yourself, and that takes a toll," Eppard said. "The best way is to trick yourself. Nobody on. Nobody out."

While those clutch at-bats might be the most important, hitters say they must have 100 percent focus and energy on every at-bat. When you try to do more, you end up doing less.

"You want to have the same at-bat whether there's a guy on second or third or the bases are empty," Howie Kendrick said. "You still want to put up a great at-bat. Sometimes you can get up there and try to do too much. We're all human. ... Sometimes at-bats can get away from you, and you can try to do too much. That's when you get in trouble as a hitter."

Trying to do too much is the hitter's code for swinging at bad pitches. Most of the time a walk isn't going to get the run in, so hitters look instead for a hit, whether or not the pitcher is throwing strikes.

The best clutch hitters, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, are the ones who simply stay the same.

"It's not about rising to the occasion or doing better," he said. "It's about maintaining your game. I think some guys have distractions that can lead to a poor at-bat, whether you are trying too hard or are not focused. Most of the time you see players expand their zone a little bit. They want to be the guy who gets the hit. Hopefully, experience teaches guys to pass the baton. If you are not getting a pitch to hit, let the next guy do it. As a team, I think we'll get better at that."

They couldn't get much worse. Through the first 13 games, the Angels had just 12 hits with runners in scoring position, for a .129 average in those situations. They increased their total by 33 percent with a 4-for-10 day Tuesday, but their overall average is still the worst in the majors.

The Angels have been so bad that the simple probabilities indicate they are due to hit a hot streak of driving in runners.

Hitting with runners in scoring position, some believe, is not so much a skill as a coincidence. For a team or a player, the average in those situations is going to be roughly the same as the overall average, given a big enough sample size.

In Scioscia's tenure as manager of the Angels, 11 of his 13 teams have had an average with runners in scoring position within 12 points of the overall average. Six of his teams have been better, five have been worse, and two have been exactly the same with runners in scoring position.

Of the Angels' seven everyday players who have more than two full years in the majors, six have an average with runners in scoring position that is within 12 points of their overall average.

The one exception is catcher Chris Iannetta, who has hit .256 with runners in scoring position and .235 overall.

Iannetta's explanation for his clutch success?

"I have no clue," he said. "I never thought about it. I just try to do the same thing I always do. Try to get a hit."

Kendrick's numbers also lend support to the notion that clutch hitting is not a true skill. In 2007, he hit 75 points worse with runners in scoring position than he did overall. In 2008, he hit 60 points better.

"I can't really tell you I was trying to do anything different," Kendrick said. "The biggest thing for us as hitters is to stay consistent. We don't really look into the numbers with guys in scoring position. We just try to have good at-bats."

Kendrick's overall average was 16 points higher in the year he had poor numbers with runners in scoring position. For his career, Kendrick has hit .291 overall, and .289 with runners in scoring position.

The sheer randomness of performance with runners in scoring position, combined with the fact that the Angels are still looking at a pretty small sample size (16 for 103), is why the players aren't concerned with the numbers yet.

"If the numbers look like this two months from now, we'll discuss it," Mark Trumbo said. "As of now, the only time we hear about it is from (the media). I know we'll get better."

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